1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network systems, and more particularly, to offloading host system tasks for managing network related operations.
2. Background of the Invention
Computer networks are commonly used today in various applications. Computer networks typically use a layered protocol structure to manage network traffic. One common model that is typically used is the ISO model that includes a physical layer, a data link layer that includes a MAC layer, a network layer and others.
Data received and sent to a network often needs to be processed by various network protocol layers before the data is made available to an application that requested the information. Typically, a network stack places data that is received from the network in a receive buffer, which are allocated by the network layer. The receive buffers are then passed between plural protocol layers until the appropriate application that requested the data is notified that the requested data is available.
Expensive and tedious copying of data commonly takes place before the application gets the data and is undesirable.
Therefore there is a need for a system and method for processing network data without multiple copy operations.